Windy weather closes Napier-Taupo Road, strong gusts across Hawke's Bay

Strong winds saw the Napier-Taupo Road closed to high-sided vehicles and motorbikes. Photo / Warren Buckland

Windy weather across Hawke's Bay forced high-sided vehicles and motorbikes to avoid the Napier-Taupo Road.

MetService meteorologist April Clark said the weather was caused by a northwesterly front moving across the country.

"We've been getting a lot of fronts which have strong northerly, northwest winds ahead of it.

"They really can sometimes squeeze through the tops of those mountains."

Clark said the partial road closure could be attributed to a front which moved over Hawke's Bay, but had passed by mid Tuesday morning.

"Ahead of that front, there would have been quite strong northerly wind ahead of it."

While MetService does not have a station along the Napier-Taupo road, the strongest gust measured was in Te Pohue, at 94km/h around 7am.

By mid-morning that had eased to around 70km/h.

At Hawke's Bay Airport, there were gusts which reached 76km/h and in Wairoa gusts reached 61km/h.

According to data from Hawke's Bay Regional Council's monitoring station at Te Haroto on the Napier-Taupo Road, average wind speed peaked at 3.15am, with gusts reaching almost 48km/h.

This gradually died down, with wind speeds of 18km/h by 10am.

Every cloud has a silver lining, the windy northwesterlies were also the cause of the warmer weather, with Napier and Hastings seeing highs of 16C on Tuesday.

"Northerlies, northwesterlies, they warm as they come on to the Eastern side.

"It's also the reason why you don't get quite as much rain as western areas."

Wednesday is expected to be fine and calm to start with, but turn to southerlies in the afternoon, with developing cloud and possible showers.

Hastings will see a high of 16C and Napier 17C.

Thursday is expected to be fine, with a high of 16C in both Napier and Hastings.

A spokesperson for the NZ Transport Agency confirmed the Napier-Taupo Road reopened for all vehicles at 11am on Tuesday.